Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger

By Krista Mahr

It took Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger less than five minutes to become a hero. On Jan. 15, Sullenberger saved the lives of all 155 passengers aboard the U.S. Airways Airbus A320 he was flying. After birds hit the engines of Flight 1549 less than two minutes after takeoff and the plane lost power, the former Air Force pilot cooly told passengers to "brace for impact" and landed the aircraft in the Hudson River. What's more, Sullenberger didn't leave the plane until he had completed two sweeps of the cabin to make sure all passengers were safely out. As images of the evacuation of the crew and passengers from the winter waters played out on computers and television screens across the world, a folk hero was born. "That pilot is a stud," a police source told the New York Daily News. "After the crash, he was sitting there in the ferry terminal, wearing his hat, sipping his coffee and acting like nothing happened."